There's a specific moment on the drive to Gurez when the forest just stops. One turn you're in pine cover, the next the trees fall away and the whole Great Himalayan Range opens up in front of you, ridge after ridge after ridge, with nothing in the foreground to distract from it. That moment happens at Razdan Top, and it's the single thing people remember most after doing this drive: not the shrine, not the road, the view. Standing at 3,557 meters with that range laid out in front of you, unbroken and enormous, is the kind of thing photographs undersell. Razdan Top is the pass that separates Gurez Valley from the rest of Kashmir, and there is no way around it. If you're going to Gurez, you're crossing this pass. For roughly four to six months a year, heavy snow seals it shut completely, and the entire valley on the other side goes quiet, cut off from Bandipora and everything beyond it.
Razdan Top sits on the Srinagar–Bandipora–Gurez road, about 72 km from Srinagar and 16 km from Bandipora town. From Srinagar, the drive to the top runs 3 to 4 hours one way. Most people either treat it as a long day trip on its own, or as the opening chapter of a longer Gurez itinerary, which is how we run it. The climb out of Bandipora starts through pine forest, and the road switches back steadily as it gains height, until the trees thin out and you're driving through bare alpine slopes with nothing but sky and mountain on either side.
This isn't a relaxed mountain drive, and it shouldn't be treated like one. The final stretch to the top has sections of concrete-tiled road running along drops of several hundred meters, with no guardrails in a lot of places. It has a reputation, and it earns it. That said, the road is well maintained by the Border Roads Organisation (BRO) and is entirely manageable in a capable vehicle with a driver who isn't in a hurry. The road rewards patience, not confidence.
The pass typically opens by late May or early June and stays passable until October, snow permitting. July and August give you the clearest roads and the greenest slopes below the pass, and it's the window we run our Gurez departures in.
The main landmark is the shrine of Peer Baba, maintained by the Army unit posted here, sitting right at the edge of the pass with the mountains dropping away behind it. On a clear day, Mount Harmukh stands out in the distance, a peak considered sacred in Kashmiri Hindu tradition and historically significant as the vantage point from which K2 was first sighted, back in 1856. But it's the range itself that stays with people. The Great Himalayan Range doesn't announce itself gradually here, it just arrives, all at once, the moment you clear the treeline.
Yes, if you're short on time. A there-and-back trip from Bandipora takes about 3 hours and gives you the view without committing to the full Gurez journey. But most people who make the climb end up wanting to see what's on the other side of it. If you have two or three days, continuing into Gurez Valley and Tulail is where the trip really opens up, and Razdan Top becomes just the doorway rather than the destination.
Quick facts:
If you're driving up to Bandipora yourself before joining a group onward, our self-drive fleet has cars built for hill roads. For the full journey past the pass and deeper into Gurez, see our offbeat Kashmir tour.